Yet another “HD DVD wins, Blu-ray stinks” article made the rounds this weekend, only it’s from a guy whose opinion actually means something (I think). Don Lindich, whose “Digital Made Easy” books—I don’t know—make digital easy, says HD DVD is the better value right now. An abundance of cheap players, increased studio support, Wal-Mart support, ease of manufacturing… the list is long and distinguished. All of these little factors add up to make HD DVD the one to get right now.
On the surface, at least.
Let’s say you’re into gaming. For $400, you can grab a PS3 that doubles as a Blu-ray player. That’s really not a bad deal, a “next gen” (isn’t it “current gen” by now?) system and the ability to watch high-def movies for four bills. But that’s only if you’re a gamer.
That said, if all you want is to watch high-def movies, games be damned, then yes, HD DVD would be the practical choice. 1080p is 1080p, right?
May I suggest that a lot of the initial Blu-ray hype was because of A) its “better” name and B) the fact that it has more storage capacity, which is completely irrelevant if the studios encode their movies using MPEG4-4?
Sound Advice: HD DVD leaves Blu-ray in the dust [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via Xbox-Scene]
[quote]That said, if all you want is to watch high-def movies, games be damned, then yes, HD DVD would be the practical choice. 1080p is 1080p, right?[/quote]
I guess this guy didn’t do any research before he commented; The cheap HD-DVD players are NOT capable of 1080p. They only support 1080i video output.
PLEEEEEEEEEASE DO SOME RESEARCH!!!
Superdynamite…
Actually, a lot of the new tv’s will upscale 1080i sources to 1080p. But the reality of it is it does not really matter. Most people aren’t going to be buying a big enough tv for them to be able to discern a different. Most eyes cannot see a different between 1080i and 1080p on tvs 46 inches or lower. 1080p is a marketing ploy. Looks like they got ya!
At any rate, I have a 1080p samsung 40 incher and connect via component cables (which only gives me 1080i) and I cannot tell a different between that and when i connect it via VGA (which outputs 1080p).
Let me also clue you in that most tvs in homes are 720p/1080i so for those people a native 1080i player would be just fine and dandy.
Despite all of this, the most expensive toshiba hd dvd player is selling for less than the cheapest blu ray player. That is 1080p, not 1080i.
So just shhhh….
*different should be difference… sorry for all you spellcheckers out there!
Superdynamite: You are the one who needs to do research.
Toshiba’s 1080p HD-DVD players are still $100-$200 dollars cheaper than blu-ray. For identical products, when the only difference is price, HD-DVD is a better value indeed.
HD DVD will win this battle for HD Disc content. The general masses will decide and the sub $200 player will get into these peoples homes. We can argue all day long about capacities, 1080i vs 1080p, etc but once again the general masses will not really understand or care. They just want that HD picture which both HD DVD and BluRay will give and will follow the price. They are not reading these news stories and blogs on the subject. They are watching TV and seeing the WalMart commercials. It was a bold move by Toshiba (if not a neccesity to clean out older stock to make way for new).
Superdynamite: Actually, even with 1080i output to a 1080p TV, the resulting picture will most likely be exactly the same as 1080p output to the same TV, assuming the video source was film based (ie. movies).
An explanation of why this is the case here:
http://wiki.digital-digest.com/index.php/1080i/p